


SPOILERS: Six things in Captain America: The Winter Soldier that reminded me of 1796 Earth...and other meta

by CanterburyTales



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: 1796 spoilers, BIG HAIRY SPOILERS, Captain America: The Winter Soldier Spoilers, Gen, Meta, Metafiction, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-03
Updated: 2014-04-07
Packaged: 2018-01-18 01:22:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1409800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CanterburyTales/pseuds/CanterburyTales
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Does exactly what it says on the tin.</p><p>Do NOT NOT NOT read if you haven't seen the movie. PLEASE. </p><p>Spoilers for <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/972937/chapters/1912625">1796 Broadway</a> and associated fics too - so beware.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Six things in Captain America: The Winter Soldier that reminded me of 1796 Earth

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [1796 Broadway](https://archiveofourown.org/works/972937) by [rainproof](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainproof/pseuds/rainproof), [teaberryblue](https://archiveofourown.org/users/teaberryblue/pseuds/teaberryblue). 



(1) Hydra. Obviously.  
(2) Evil AI. Obviously. Though Zola was evil to start with. You have to wonder about Ultron...  
(3) Strictly [this chapter of Jekyll and Charlotte](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1288582/chapters/2928745) reminded me of the movie. I'm thinking specifically of where Steve is still not trusting SHIELD entirely (the early part of the movie) and later where Natasha talking about how she had thought she was changing her life when she left the KGB and joined SHIELD. I can see the J&C Steve becoming the movie Steve, and the movie Natasha talking about how she felt when she was the fic Natasha. The fic conversation also hit me when Natasha said, "But SHIELD isn't just a clever acronym. It's what they do." Because that was the problem. They protected Natasha (and the Hulk and Steve). But they also protected Hydra. What better host for a parasite to chose than one which is focused on protection?  
(4) Falcon jumping from the 41st floor reminded me of [this comment](http://archiveofourown.org/works/972937/comments/7617784). Just one floor out. And reminded me of Tony, of course. What's the difference between Iron Man and Falcon? One floor and a jet on 39.  
(5) Howard Stark was killed by Hydra. Think of that and read [this](http://archiveofourown.org/works/667224). For movie Tony the battle against Hydra is becoming as personal as it is for Steve. 

(6) Maria Hill getting a polygraph for SI. I was the only one who laughed because all I could think of was...

> Earnest cleared his throat. "Are you, or have you been at any time, an agent, contact or information source for Hydra?" 
> 
> "No," said the subject, level and calm. Earnest Jordan didn't need to look at the screen beside him to know the readings showed no deviation. He moved on. 
> 
> "Are you currently affiliated with any organisation that you have not included on your CV?" 
> 
> Damn waste of time. Earnest's mama hadn't raised any fools. He'd always known when something was going on in the huge monolith that was Stark Industries, even if his first instinct was always to hunker down and watch it rather than point it out or attack it. That was what made him useful, and also meant he survived the purge of top management when Tony Stark took over the reins of SI himself. _That had been a hostile takeover and no mistake._ Not that Earnest _knew_ anything... 
> 
> Maria Hill paused. "I have a New York library card. Does that count?" 
> 
> The technician beside him snickered. _Damn fool._ On the other side, Avery Clark shifted, put her head to one side. She'd risen quickly, Ms Clark. Deserved it too. She was sharp and bright, and had the sense of humor that Earnest privately thought absolutely essential for anyone who had to deal with Mr Stark for any length of time. He looked repressively at the technician, who flushed and shut up. 
> 
> "Yes, it does. Anything else?" 
> 
> Maria Hill paused to (apparently) consider for a moment. "No." 
> 
> Damn waste of time. Did they really think Earnest wouldn't see? The influx of young interns and trainees and junior staff; all smart and efficient and apparently unremarkable but light on their feet and with a nasty habit of silent appearances and disappearances. Damn near given him a heart attack, more than once. Avery had been one of those. Not one of them had caused a tremor on the polygraph. Even in the days when Tony had included the question, "Are you now, or have you been at any time, an agent, contact or information source for SHIELD?" 
> 
> Still, if it kept Mr Stark happy, that was the main thing. Earnest rustled his papers while Avery moved onto the next question. Maria listened, her eyes alert and slightly appraising, as if taking the measure of this woman she had never met before. Earnest suppressed the desire to shake his head. He was getting far too old for this. 

I'm sure there were more. Suggestions or corrections in the comments please!


	2. It's rude to ask a lady's age...

...but we know Natasha's now, right? Or do we? 

When Zola greeted Natasha with, "Natasha Romanov, born 1984", I shrugged and said to myself, "goodbye Red Room". It's possible that she's the Soviet attempt at a super soldier, but being so much younger makes it more likely the MCU is dropping that back-story. And after all, Steve's is diverging even from the comic prequel (his mother died when he's adult or very close to it, and he is already friends with Bucky), as is the Twins'. But then I started to wonder.

The first oddity came before they even left Zola's lair. Natasha tells Steve she thought she was changing when she left the KGB. That struck me as odd straight away because I have a WiP with a character born 1981 (Mary Morstan Watson) who I have under Soviet control as a child. The issue - the KGB disbanded when she was ten - 1991. That means Natasha, born 1984, was seven. Perhaps she worked for the Federal Counterintelligence Service (FSK) of Russia (gone when she was eleven), or the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB)...but would she really call it the KGB if the organisation she was working for was never called that while she was there? (Her story about taking a scientist from Iran to Odessa suggests she _was_ in some Russian security service sometime after the early 1990s.) 

Thinking about that afterwards, two other things occurred to me. Natasha was shot in the shoulder, and in the trip to Fury Sam Wilson (iirc) was concerned she'd bleed out. Yet there she was, impersonating a World Council Member (who was TOTALLY an ex-member of the UK Avengers with Steed in my head) at most days later. 

And during that impersonation she was shocked by the pin she was wearing. The other Council Members shocked fell down; the implication was that they were killed instantly. When Natasha fell down, and Pierce defeated, Fury came over to her and called to her. He wasn't sure she was okay - but he obviously thought there was a chance she wasn't dead...and she wasn't. 

The last point. Pierce said to her, imagine all your secrets on the internet, and Natasha's face changed, to something I read as horror. Then it changed again, and she returned, imagine yours. I think she was (as with Loki) playing with him by feeding him the truth. Yes, all her secrets out would be a dreadful thing for her. But you know what, Mr Pierce? It is not going to happen THIS day. 

Zola got all his information from the digital world. Paper? Unless a camera records it or it is digitised, it's not available to him. I think that the information SHIELD has on Natasha is fake, a cover, probably created by whoever controlled her last. In the vaults of the KGB, I suggest, there are a LOT more files, all about an agent codenamed the Black Widow, all with different ages and backgrounds, all in fact the same person. There is a lot more that has probably been destroyed. I think Fury knows that. Hawkeye...not sure. I'd say yes, only surely Loki would have used it. 

So that's my alternative theory. It's probably wrong! Natasha might just be a very good spy (or a very good and enhanced one) born in 1984, who calls the FSB a name out of date when she was seven (that the audience will recognise). Or, she isn't, in which case 1984 an incredibly appropriate year for her cover and not just because it's the year ScarJo was born. It's a name with echoes of rewriting history; as Orwell wrote, "All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary." For all, read Natasha's.


	3. The Path of the Righteous Man.

> Ezekiel 25:17. "The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness. For he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you." 

"The path of the righteous man..." Best use of a gravestone ever! Also a great distraction - anyone see any dates on it? I loved this for three reasons. 

(1) The reason people laughed: [it's THE Samuel L. Jackson quote](http://whatculture.com/film/10-badass-samuel-l-jackson-movie-quotes.php/11). His character Jules says it twice in the movie, once before killing someone and finally before saying this:

> I been sayin' that shit for years. And if you ever heard it, it meant your ass. I never really questioned what it meant. I thought it was just a cold-blooded thing to say to a motherfucker before you popped a cap in his ass. But I saw some shit this mornin' made me think twice. Now I'm thinkin': it could mean you're the evil man. And I'm the righteous man. And Mr. .45 here, he's the shepherd protecting my righteous ass in the valley of darkness. Or it could be you're the righteous man and I'm the shepherd and it's the world that's evil and selfish. I'd like that. But that shit ain't the truth. The truth is you're the weak. And I'm the tyranny of evil men. But I'm tryin, Ringo. I'm tryin' real hard to be the shepherd. 

(2) Not only is it the iconic SLJ quote, it's also an appropriate quote for Fury's gravestone. Assuming they kept the "killed by terrorists he was in league with" story quiet, anyone looking at that grave and hearing it was of the man who ran SHIELD and was killed by terrorists would think it appropriate. He was beset. He did shepherd the weak, with the Avengers as his rod and staff. And so, the reader might think, God should punish the ones who killed him. "You can be damn sure we'll avenge it." 

(3) And then there's the third reading, and it's back full circle to the first. Fury, like Jules, recognises the ambiguity of what actions mean in the world. He defended himself against Steve by saying "SHIELD finds the world as it is, not how we want it to be." But now SHIELD is in danger of being the organisation that delivers the tyranny of evil men instead of the shepherd and protector of the weak Fury had built it as. 

The first three sentences describe accurately the situation SHIELD and its defenders find themselves in. The rest are, as they were when Jules used them, a threat and a promise. Fury chose it for Pierce to see. Perhaps a clergyman read all the verses at the graveside, standing beside the lilies Pierce sent. Fury delivered those words and Pierce never realised that it meant his ass.


	4. What now for Agents of Shield?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Spoilers for Agents of Shield up to "The End of the Beginning" (1.16).

[](http://s767.photobucket.com/user/canterburyfic/media/Sitwell_Coulson_zps0023791f.png.html)

Happier days...

For what now for Agents of Shield? _Captain America The Winter Soldier_ in retrospect changes some of the past events and threatens to undermine the premise of the show...possibly. 

A friend of mine never trusted Sitwell, even as far back as _The Consultant_. Good instincts, D. Puts a more sinister turn on his interest in Simmons after she took him out with the Nite-nite gun in "The Hub" (1.7), and on his meetings with Coulson (how COULD you, Sitwell?) 

On the other hand, I never trusted Victoria Hand (and yes, I should have known from the comics...) It seems plausible looking back that it wasn't a accident that Grant and Fitz had no extraction plan in "The Hub" or that she never was all that interested in getting Coulson back (in "The Magical Place.) Plausibly without Skye, Coulson would have spilled everything before they found him. 

As for the Clairvoyant, given Skye's discovery that all his/her information is from SHIELD files, it seems plausible that he is Zola. The MO is the same, extrapolating from digital data, even if the style is different. Quite why he or Hydra would bother is another question. An outlet for running operations that are just _too_ morally dubious for SHIELD or other quazi-governmental organisations to touch? In that case it would seem like a bad policy for Marvel for Zola to be dead (oh, the big bad died off screen, soz). Toby Young for a cameo by "Providence" (1.20) perhaps? 

If the Clairvoyant is not Zola, then who? AIM are still out there of course, and Extremis was theirs to begin with. 

Melinda May? I have a gut feeling she's one of Nick's gang. He has a type (terrifying). But then, I didn't spot Sitwell... 

What for the future? I imagine Coulson's gang be lone agents for probably the rest of the series. Still, you have to wonder what on earth SI are interviewing Maria Hill for. (If Sharon Carter could make the CIA, I'm sure Hill could.) Will Hill now be the director of _Stark Hazard Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division_ under SI and Tony Stark's wing? Will Coulson and the gang make calls into Avengers Tower and hunt down Hydra? Is this the "Providence" referred to in the title of 1.20 or are they just going to Rhode Island?

Tony Stark privatizing the defence of the world is scary. But then, it will probably be better than SHIELD turned out to be. Not your fault, Howard and Peggy.


End file.
